Dual-Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) tones are required for dialing out and/or initiating a telephone call from a telephone set. DTMF signaling is used for telephone signaling from a telephone set over a telephone line to a call switching center. The DTMH signaling occurs in the voice-frequency band. During a dialing process by a user using touch-tone keys, the telephone set generates dialing confirmation tones that are played through the receiver earpiece of the telephone set so that dialing confirmation tones may be heard by the user. The dialing confirmation tones are intended for user convenience so that the user of the telephone set will be able to confirm that the telephone set has received the touch-tone key press. However, the loudness and duration of the dialing confirmation tones vary from one telephone set to another. Loud dialing confirmation tones may cause annoyance to a user, as well as be a disturbance to others. For example, in a calm and quiet environment, loud DTMF dialing confirmation tones may disturb the privacy of others in the environment.
Continuous DTMF tones are required for some specific continuous operations, such as through remote access applications. For example, through remote access, a user needs to press and hold a specific key for a certain period of time to generate and send continuous tones in order to delete all stored messages in a remote voice mail system mailbox. In such situations, the dialing confirmation tones may be even more objectionable to the user.